Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Over the last year, the majority of bands I've posted about fall into one of four categories:

They are from Sweden.

They are from Vermont.

They are from Brooklyn.

They are a one-man band.

The Strugglers fall into the last category. Brice Randall Bickford II has a rotating cast of musicians join him but he's THE GUY and hence, the band.

I learned about The Strugglers from the Will Oldham tribute album I Am a Cold Rock. I Am Cold Grass and their sweet cover of Oldham's "Riding". However, on their album, You Win, their sound is much broader than the acoustic cover.

I'd compare The Strugglers to Smog when Bill Callahan records his more heavily built tunes. However, Bickford's voice sounds a lot like Eddie Veder. That's the thing I had to get past. I'm not a big Pearl Jam fan and Bickford's voice is so much like Veder's that it put me off for a while. Thankfully, I finally got over it since I'm now enjoying the album.

I also like Bickford because he left the following message on his website:

If you want to buy the new record, please check elsewhere online. Amazon.com has several basically brand new used copies that our friends in the rock journalism business put up for sale—thanks, guys.

Come on. That's kind of an amusing shot at rock journalists. And to put that on the front page of your site is rather ballsy.

2 comments:

Excellent. I forgot to mention their label in the post. I'm not familiar with the Spanish label and I'll have to check it out. However, it's probably one of the reasons they aren't more popular in the US.

I'm not sure how many connections a label in Spain would have to US media and distributors. But, like I said, I'm not too familiar with them. Perhpas they have more pull in the US than I realize.